Breath of Fire

A Super NES classic heads to the Game Boy Advance.

It's a trend that's going to continue throughout the Game Boy Advance's dominant shelflife: game developers reaching into their past library of Super NES games and pulling up their cream of the crop for release on the Game Boy Advance. Capcom's line-up for the handheld is full of these games, and its latest entry for the system is a portable version of its popular RPG debut: Breath of Fire.

Now, I've not been among the millions of followers of the Breath of Fire series on the Super NES or PlayStation, so I've approached the game with a fresh mind...not with a nostalgic mentality. And as far as RPGs go on the Game Boy Advance, it's definitely one of the top few released on the system. The quest is a long one with a sprinkling of puzzle elements to keep gamers on the toes (and to make the quest feel less linear than it actually is).

Features:

Quest that lasts more than 25 hours

Battery save (three slots, one instant save)

Link cable support

Only for Game Boy Advance

Breath of Fire is a Japanese RPG in the traditional sense, keeping in line with the overhead viewpoint and random battle design. In the game, you assume the role of Ryu, a brave adventurer who's faced with the task of, surprise, surprise, saving the land from an evil force. It's not like this guy has a choice...after all, his village has been completely devastated by a tremendous power. So, in a short briefing, it's off on a solo adventure...but not for long, as, along the way, you'll pick up new members of your party that you'll assume control of. And each person that you grab for the quest adds special abilities in non-battle instances. Ryu can fish, for example, and the wolf creature Bo can shoot wildlife as well as allow the crew to wander through wooded areas. The Game Boy Advance version, apparently, adds to the SNES game design by including link cable support for item trades between two quests, and the ability to run faster through the land...instead of being bogged down by these adventurer's leisure pace. Oh, and along with the three standard save slots, you can instant save anywhere...but you won't get a revisit to this location when you bite the big one during a battle

The storyline isn't much of a breakthrough for RPGs, but it's easy to follow and, at the very least, interesting to unravel. The name Breath of Fire isn't made entirely clear until at least halfway through the quest when the lead character earns the cool ability to transform into different types of dragons during a battle...and while it's great when this happens, it's not exactly made obvious that you have this ability now...it was only after a few battles that I decided to peek into my lead character's normally empty spell menu. And that's when I saw specifically what a certain turning point in the game's plot gave this guy. The game's storytelling is obviously not the greatest, but it's better than some half-assed localized Japanese RPGs that have made it to the US in the past.

Another issue is in this game's interface. The developers of Breath of Fire didn't offer that much room for text in the US localization, so you'll pick up items such as Antdts, M.Drops, and Mrbls, and you're only allowed a four letter name to customize your quest. If you're hooked on phonics, you'll be at a loss in this RPG...but this is picking nits, really. Just be prepared to learn the art of classified ad abbreviations, because they're used throughout the Breath of Fire quest.

The other problem is that other Game Boy Advance development teams have established a few standards of what's expected on the system hardware...and truth be told, Breath of Fire doesn't exactly "wow" gamers in this department. Oh, there's nothing terribly wrong with the art style or animations...and Capcom's not really trying to make this game more than what it is: a GBA port of a SNES role-playing game. But we've got games like Golden Sun on the Game Boy Advance that've trounced what's been done in Breath of Fire, and for folks who have never played the first game in the series, they're not going to get much out of this title that hasn't been one-upped in Golden Sun.

The Verdict

I would like to make it clear: I really, really hate random battles. Yes, I realize that it's an important part of the Japanese RPG design and it's grown to be accepted among fans of the genre...but it's a real drag walking barely two steps before a fight suddenly breaks out in the adventure. And in Breath of Fire, I've never played an RPG that had as many random battles as this one. I was thanking the game designers for offering the Mrbl3 item for cheap in the shops...when you activate this element, you're temporarily "immune" to random battles. Stock up on this whenever you see it in the shops. It'll save your insanity.

As for the entire quest...it's not super pretty, but it's an enjoyable one with a simple storyline. Golden Sun it's not, but if you're nostalgic for the RPGs that folks were playing on the SNES, Breath of Fire is a decent diversion that'll last a good week of solid questing.